These Weathered Walls
by aimlessAdventurer
Summary: Three years after Wall Maria fell, all is going as planned in the Recon Corps. on the surface that is. But the cracks in the foundation run deep. Will humanity bring destruction upon itself? Or will the Recon Corps. be able to dismantle the threat? Only a select few realize how deep the corruption runs, and they are the only ones who can stop it. (rating subject to change)


_An: hey guys this is my first story on here! I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to leave a review or critique, all is welcome! I guess that's about it, I hope you enjoy the story!_

**These Weathered Walls **

Hange didn't like to be awoken early. Especially after specifically telling Moblit to not let anybody disturb her. _Especially _after only just drifting off not an hour earlier. And yet here she was attempting to go back to sleep while somebody practically was beating down her door. "Uggggggghhhh…" Hange groaned as she rolled onto her stomach and tugged her pillow over head, attempting to muffle the beating and the distant voice on the other side of her door. She was just about to doze off once again when her door was slammed open. She pulled the covers closer to her as she heard the hurried footfalls cross the room. She feigned a snore as she felt a pair of angry eyes boring into her back, hoping for the best. The best being that whoever this person who was attempting to yank the covers from her would leave her be and bother her with whatever it was that they needed later.

Alas, this was not the case. She lost her covers and the once muffled voice was now as clear as day.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Oh god no. He was the last person that she wanted to see at the moment. It had almost been a full week since she had had her last episode with this guy. It was a new record. There was a close call on Tuesday involving hot coffee and a stained cravat but she had managed to dodge that bullet by blaming Oluo, but just barely. Hange decided to face this threat head on, so she painted on her best shit eating grin and rolled over.

"Good morning Lev-"

"Shut up. Do you know what time it is?" he said coldly, murder written across his face. For some reason Hange suddenly remembered the phrase 'if looks could kill'

Hange began mumbling to herself,"Let's see if I was asleep for an hour and a half that makes it…"

"Seven o'clock", Levi interrupted, his patience growing thin.

"Seven o'clock", Hange repeated dumbly. She failed to find any significance in the time.

"Seven o'clock, Friday morning" Levi deadpanned. That's when it hit her. Shit. Shit. Fuck. Damnit.

"The Briefing!" Hange realized in a panic.

"Slow as ever, Shitty Glasses" Levi remarked. As Hange pulled on her straps and jacket over yesterday's clothes in which she had fallen asleep. She was supposed to brief the new recruits on how to incapacitate and capture a titan… 45 minutes ago. Hange was reaching for the door handle when she felt a hand grab the back of her collar she looked back to see Levi holding her toothbrush with a perturbed look on his face. Five minutes passed as she was forced to brush her teeth under the ever watchful eye of the Lance Corporal. She didn't protest at risk of causing a scene and wasting even more time.

Levi decided to give her a short lecture on personal hygiene and how she smelled like titan shit. To this she remarked that titans don't shit and she surprisingly didn't get a swift kick from the smaller man though she saw the temptation to do so in his eyes. She thanked her lucky stars and began sprinting towards the courtyard. When Hange finally made it down to where the recruits were in formation she was officially an hour late. She knew she would catch hell for it later.

Moblit was busy carrying off a young recruit to the infirmary who had passed out due to the heat. They were at the peak of summer and the heat was unforgiving. She looked up at the cloudless sky and wondered when the next rain would be. It had been nearly three weeks since it had so much as been overcast, and more were being admitted to the infirmary day by day due to dehydration and the heat.

Hange Steeled herself as she barked her first command at the troops, "Uncover!" and in perfect synchronicity the recruits removed their forest green cloaks and draped them across their arms. "At ease!" several sighs of relief were heard as the formation took a short amount of time to stretch and get the blood flowing in their legs once again. Hange felt a bit bad for making them wait around for an hour in this hellish heat while covered, but there was nothing that she could do at this point other than to begin.

"As many of you know we, the members of the Recon Corps. Will be leaving for an expedition very soon. Our objective: capture one or more subjects for the purpose of experimentation and observation. Your goal is not to kill but to incapacitate these titans; there is one main way to do this: sever vital muscles and tendons necessary for movement. Once the titan is down, you will fire a blue flare which will signal a recovery team to retrieve it. You will need to keep the titan incapacitated by continually cutting away at muscle and tendons, not giving them adequate time to regenerate. For many of you this will be you first time beyond the wall since three years ago when it first fell. Not all of you will be coming back." The formation began to shift nervously and share frightened glances. Moblit had returned shortly after Hange had finished noting the pale faces of the recruits and wondering what exactly she had said. "But I, as your squad leader am going to try and ensure that as many of you come back alive as possible. On that note, are there any questions?"

Several hands shot up almost immediately, mostly mundane questions about what to expect outside of the wall. One last hand remained raised and Hange called on it. The raised hand belonged to a frightened looking young man with a shock of red hair. His voice quaked a bit as he asked "W-What should we do in case we encounter an abnormal in the field?" Hange's eyes went a bit glassy at the thought, she had wanted to conduct experiments on an abnormal for some time now, but none had ever been taken alive. She nearly drooled at the thought…

"Squad Leader?" Moblit brought Hange back to earth long enough for her to answer.

"A-ah, well do your best to catch it" '_please'_, she thought to herself. "But if it seems to be a futile effort, don't hesitate to kill it."

And with that there were no more questions. Hange Called the formation to attention, closed their ranks and dismissed them. She dismissed Moblit and began off towards her room to catch up on her sleep, she was running on fumes. She fell into her bed and drifted off thinking about the possibility of capturing an abnormal on the next expedition.

Hange woke up two hours later to a knock at her door, this one much more cordial and calm. She stretched and arose to answer the door. She was greeted by Erwin with a sour look on his face. Oh.

"My Office. Now."

Hange had never seen so much paperwork in her life. She was used to just handing off whatever work she was given to Moblit who would give an exasperated sigh and complete it dutifully. But this was nothing like she had ever seen, there were papers nearly stacked to the ceiling, she sighed as she recalled the conversation that landed her here in the first place.

To be honest the first half of the conversation was a bit of a blur, but she caught quips here and there about respect and sleeping at appropriate times. Her thoughts tended to wander when she was being lectured, from one topic to another in the blink of an eye. She was mesmerized by Erwin's eyebrows when he realized she wasn't listening and snapped at her.

"Hange! This is important, do you even know how many of those recruits had to be admitted in that hour you were late? Five. Five men and women passed out due to the heat while you were dawdling. You can't just _leave_ the men standing at attention in 97 degree weather for an hour! That's not how things are done!" he stated sternly.

Hange looked down guiltily as Erwin continued, "There is going to have to be some form of punishment involved. You are going to go down to the medical wing and help them organize the records which have complied there."

"Uggggggghhhh, but Erwin those papers haven't been touched in almost a year…"

"It's a punishment," Erwin deadpanned, "It's not supposed to be enjoyable"

That was how Hange ended up amongst the mountains of paper in a small windowless room. She was sorting through the medical records of the current and former members of the Recon Corps. She sighed as she added another paper stamped "deceased" to the ever growing stack of similarly labeled papers. Soon, she came across a paper with a name she recognized, Petra Ral. Hange's curiosity got the better of her as she leafed through Petra's medical history. The most interesting thing she could really find was that Petra had a mild peanut allergy. Disappointed, she filed it away with the other current members of the Recon Corps.

Hange sat back in her chair and groaned, she wasn't even a quarter of the way done with the first stack of papers. Her stomach grumbled and she vaguely wondered what time it was, seeing as there was no way of knowing in this dreary room. She laid her head on the desk and her stomach growled once again. As if on cue there was a light knock at the door before it opened and in walked Petra with a hot plate of food and a mug of coffee. In that moment Hange could have sworn that Petra was an angel.

Petra explained that Moblit was busy with some paperwork of his own (ugh) and had asked her to make sure that Hange was fed. Petra set the food and coffee down and was about to turn and go when Hange stopped her

"Ah! Wait, please!"

Petra looked at her a bit befuddled.

"Are you busy? I need a break from all of this" she said gesturing at the mountains of paper behind her, jutting out her lip comically and attempting to bat her eyelashes. Petra laughed and conceded, she found the Squad Leader's company to be quite enjoyable when she wasn't on a tangent about research or titans. Petra pulled up a chair and they chatted casually as Hange talked around large bites of food.

Hange eventually finished and it had come time for Petra to leave. Hange flashed a toothy grin and thanked Petra before she went. After the door closed behind Petra Hange immediately deflated as she focused back on the papers.

"_Only five more days…"_ she thought to herself. Five days until the expedition, five days until she could do actual research again.

Hours and countless papers passed by every so often yielding an interesting fact or two about her comrades for example: Oluo was a little more than half her age (Hange had to do a double take n that one), Moblit broke both of his legs in a sledding accident when he was 11, Gunter was allergic to cats and so on…

She eventually hit pay dirt though. Sitting on her disk was the file of one Lance Corporal Levi, and Hange fully intended to snoop. She opened it up scanning for any information, he was perfectly healthy, no injuries, never seriously sick. She was pretty unimpressed until she saw it. Those two glorious words stared back at her from the paper "Lactose Intolerant"

Hange giggled and decided that was a piece of information that could be useful in the future. Two more hours passed and Hange found herself drifting off on the last of the first stack of documents that she had filed. Soon she was fast asleep.

At around one in the morning the door creaked open and Levi entered, he crossed over to Hange who let out a snore and mumbled to himself "tch, stupid four eyes…" he observed her for a moment before sighing , picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder to begin the long trek back to her room. He could have sworn there was a second pair of footsteps in the corridors but every time he turned to look, he saw nothing. He chalked the uneasy feeling up to paranoia and kept on his way, Hange stirring occasionally. Farther behind the two a figure cloaked in their Recon Corps. Cape let out a quiet breath of relief that they hadn't been spotted.


End file.
